Draw-Snow

Conley WoodsThursday, August 30, 2012

ver the years, I think it's safe to say I have had my fair share of wacky brews. Some of these have been in the public eye, through Pro Tours or Grand Prix, but many were simply Friday Night Magic brews from back in the day. Friday Night Magic is awesome for expressing your creativity, and I remember doing so often. One deck that still sticks out to me was built on the back of Spiteful Visions and all of the Howling Mines in the format, along with some damage prevention in the form of Immortal Coil or life gain. This set up the game in such a way that your opponent was drawing more and more cards while taking damage in the process, while you kept the symmetry from doing you in as well.

The deck was fun, but sideboards tended to hose my strategy and I only played the deck for a few weeks. That's why, when I saw a version of that deck pop up in a format without sideboards, I got pretty excited! Over at StarCityGames.com, Cassidy McAuliffe is back at the Commander brewing and arrived at this decklist with his most recent project. The deck does many of the things my Standard list did, but gets to include even cooler and older cards to go along with it.

The basic game plan involves sticking some card-draw engines, like Howling Mine. At this point, everyone will tend to be your friend, happy to draw cards and leave you alone. Eventually, you spring your plan into action, dropping Underworld Dreams, Spiteful Visions, and Painful Quandary. At this point, the jig is up and people are going to start attacking you. Here is where the Fog plan comes into action, though. With a lot of "Snow-Based" damage prevention in the list, along with more traditional Fog effects, the deck is able to both stop some of its own inflicted damage as well as that of the upset patrons of your card-drawing machine you have set up. Hold out long enough and you get to walk away with victory!